How to extract the path taken by each turtle in the world and save it in a .csv file? - netlogo

Question

I'm still trying to extract the coordinates of the path taken by every turtle in the world. For example, I would like to know the path taken by turtle 0 was patch 00 patch 0 5 patch 0 2 and patch 1 4 and save this information in a .csv file. In this way, I would like to extract the coordinates of the path taken by all the turtles in the world. I'm thinking about creating a list that gives me this information and then saving it.
The problem is that I cannot create an empty list for each turtle created and then, before every move, add the current patch location to the lists. And finally, generate the file of this information in .csv
That is, when inspecting the turtle I don't see the list and when creating the file in .csv it is not generated. Can anyone help me with the code?
Thanks in advance
turtles-own [ mypathx mypathy mytimer]
to setup
ca
reset-ticks
crt 5
ask turtles [
setxy random-xcor random-ycor
let i [ ]
pen-down
]
end
to go
move
let n count turtles
if n = 0 and output? = true [output] ;; ouput? is an switch on interface
if n = 0 [ stop ]
tick
end
to move
ask turtles [
rt random 360
fd 1
if ticks >= 10
[
die
]
]
end
To output
file-open "test.txt"
ask turtles [
set mypathx lput pxcor mypathx
set mypathy lput pycor mypathy
let maxer length mypathx
let i 0
repeat maxer
[
file-print (word item i mypathx " " item i mypathy " " item i mytimer)
let x ( i + 1 )
]
]
file-close
end

Answer 1

There are a number of things to note here, so I hope I understood what you inteded to do.
First of all, note that your code goes to output only after all the turtles died (that is infact one of the conditions to go to output: if n = 0). Therefore, it is normal that there is no data to be exported: in output you ask turtles, but when output is executed all turtles already left the simulation.
However, there is also something that Filip rightly noticed in the comment to the question: it seems logical to ask turtles to save the coordinates of their journey as they move - as opposed to asking them to do so at the end of the simulation.
Based on the current code, turtles simply move in the simulation, and only at the end (e.g. when output is called) they are are asked to save their current location. It would be ideal to include a piece of code where you ask turtles, after each move, to record their location in the list.
To combine this point and the previous one, I would do something like:
to setup
clear-all
reset-ticks
create-turtles 5 [
; I talk about this piece in point 3.
]
end
to go
move
tick
end
to move
ask turtles [
right random 360
forward 1
register-coordinates
]
end
to register-coordinates
set mypathx lput pxcor mypathx
set mypathy lput pycor mypathy
set mytimer lput ticks mytimer ; This is what I assumed you want mytimer to do.
end
And here comes the other problem. You are not initiating the turtles-own variables as lists.
If you run your piece of code now, nothing happens because all turtles are dead by the time you ask them to output. But if you just remove the die command, or if you ask turtles to output before they die, you would get an error - saying that lput expected a list but got something else instead.
From the NetLogo Dictionary you can see that the list primitive is used to create a list with two values.
If you want to create a list containing any other amount of values, you have to use (list ...). This includes the case in which you want to create an empty list. To do that, I would therefore do:
create-turtles 5 [
setxy random-xcor random-ycor
set mypathx (list)
set mypathy (list)
set mytimer (list)
pen-down
]
Now, mypathx, mypathy and mytimer are legal inputs to the lput procedure.
Finally, you can include the output at the end of your simulation (note how I changed go compared to the previous code example):
to go
if ticks = 11 [
ask turtles [output]
stop
]
move
tick
end
...
to output
file-open "test.csv"
file-print (word who "," mypathx "," mypathy "," mytimer)
file-close
end
So, overall, improtant adjustments are: initiate variables as lists if you want to treat them as such; ask your turtles to save their coordinates at every step in their turtles-own list variables; only at the end, ask them to write their list variables in the output file; do not kill your turtles before you ask them to output information.
Integrating all of the above, the code would look like:
turtles-own [mypathx mypathy mytimer]
to setup
clear-all
reset-ticks
create-turtles 5 [
setxy random-xcor random-ycor
set mypathx (list)
set mypathy (list)
set mytimer (list)
pen-down
]
end
to go
if ticks = 11 [
ask turtles [output]
stop
]
move
tick
end
to move
ask turtles [
right random 360
forward 1
register-coordinates
]
end
to register-coordinates
set mypathx lput pxcor mypathx
set mypathy lput pycor mypathy
set mytimer lput ticks mytimer
end
to output
file-open "test.csv"
file-print (word who "," mypathx "," mypathy "," mytimer)
file-close
end
Final notes on the code above:
I am not sure which exact format you want your output to be, but this example code works fine in saving the lists in the .csv file - so you can take it from there and play around to make it fit your needs.
I removed the pcolor part because it seemed unnecessary for the purpose of the question.
I am not sure what you wanted i to do in setup, but it seemed unnecessary for the purpose of the question so I removed that too from my exemplar code. Be careful at how you use item: I don't know what you wanted to do, but the way you included it in your question was often giving runtime errors.
I created a .csv as per the title of the question, instead of a .txt as per the code you provided.